Category Archives: low syn

Low syn recipes

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September 25, 2014

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fakeaways, fast food restaurants, low syn, lunch, recipe card, syn free

Slimming World subway

One of my constant challenges with any diet (actually, even when I’m not dieting) is what to have for lunch. I work in a job which often requires me to be at my desk even through my lunch (boo) and I’m too fat and lazy to make my lunch the night before. Luckily, there’s a Subway right next door. Fun fact: I once got thrown out of a Subway for drunkenly demanding a ‘chicken tickilicki’ and passing out on the floor. Mind, that’s nothing compared to why I was once chucked out of a Yates Wine Lodge – let’s just say THAT wasn’t a syn-free mouthful of pork – classy.

Now, you might associate Subway with sandwiches and whatnot, and you’d be a fool to go waltzing in expecting to fill your maw with bread and get away with it. Simply put, you can’t. Well you can, but it will cost you in syns big-time, with the wheat, Italian or ‘hearty Italian’ ringing in at 9 syns a pop for a six incher. Blimey. No, they also do salad bowls, and this is what I have:

Subway salad

Admittedly, it kinda looks like I’ve got so excited about the prospect of eating a salad that I’ve spaffed all over it, but I can assure you that I haven’t – that’s honey and mustard dressing. My Subway salad consists of tomatoes, plain chicken, jalapeno, green pepper, lettuce, olives, gherkins and cucumber. I count 1 syn for the smattering of sliced olives (but you could miss them out) and 2 syns for the sauce, which is their lowest calorie option. You could always make your own dressing or buy a syn-free version (vinegar based fat-free dressings are usually free, certainly the Kraft fat-free french dressing is, but always double check) to add, but I can’t be faffed on carrying around a bottle of dressing! Remember: syns are to be used, and it’s about fitting Slimming World into your life, not your life into Slimming World. CLIMB EVERY MOUNTAIN BABY.

The key thing to remember here is that everything in that salad, bar the olives and chicken, is a superfree food, so you’re really going to speed up your weight loss – and best of all, it’s only £3.29. A decent option for a town lunch.

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September 22, 2014

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bacon, budget, low syn, lunch, pasta, recipe card

simple tomato pasta

Want something delicious in your gob?

Paul’s tomato pasta, of course, which is bursting at the seams with enough cherry tomatoes to pebbledash a small house with. an easy two syn recipe this – here’s the card:swtomato

ingredients: pack of bacon medallions (unsmoked), a veritable United Colours of Benetton range of tomatoes, two sweet peppers, sliced olives, two onions, oxo cube, any scratty bits of pasta you have left over, spinach and reduced fat feta to serve.

recipe: finely chop the onion, chilli, bacon and peppers and chuck them in a heavy pot with a lid to sweat down, then chop the various tomatoes to different sizes and add them to the mix. Simmer for a few minutes and add two tablespoons of tomato puree and 250ml of chicken stock. leave to simmer on a reasonable heat for twenty minutes or so. Cook and drain your pasta, and do it well for goodness sake as nobody likes watery pasta. tip into the tomato mix, shake it like a Polaroid picture and serve on a bed of spinach (another superfree) and top with reduced fat feta. Paul adds anchovies to his because he’s a sick, sick man.

extra-easy: perfect extra-easy meal, given the amount of tomatoes, peppers and onions in the pot which all count as superfree foods – you could always chuck in some peas or shredded leek.

warning: we used frylight, but if you use oil to fry, make sure you syn it. one teaspoon of olive oil is 2 syns – blimey. If you decide to use bacon as we have done, buy the medallions without fat or trim everything off. finally, olives – eight black olives are one syn altogether.

top tips: although Paul doesn’t trust me enough to do this yet, after eight years of marriage, you can just chuck your pasta straight into the sauce and cook it in the sauce rather than water. It’ll make the sauce thicker and it works a lot better with decent pasta, but it’s brilliant. Try it with spaghetti when you next make spaghetti bolognese.

Cheers!

J

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September 21, 2014

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breast, low syn, lunch, recipe card, salad

a simple salad

goodness me, that was a fancy title. I do apologise. This is what is for supper tonight.

After all that curry loaf and beans, Paul was worried that any more spice and excitement would result in us dutchovening ourselves to death tonight, so he made a simple salad for supper. By the way, we don’t normally call it supper, we’re not that posh, but I enjoyed the alliteration. The salad contains:

  • beetroot shavings;
  • pea shoots;
  • rocket;
  • cucumber;
  • tomatoes;
  • a grilled chicken breast;
  • reduced fat feta cheese (actually the ASDA knock off ‘Greek cheese’ haha)
  • an egg;
  • pickled onions;
  • sweetcorn; and
  • red onions.
Doesn’t it look inviting? Nice simple presentation and a good mix of flavours. Completely syn free as we are using the feta cheese as our healthy extra choice, of which we are allowed 45g of reduced fat feta.
top tip: add even more superfree foods in the form of shredded cabbage, gherkins, sliced peppers or mushrooms. Fill your plate!
warning: keep an eye on dressings. They can add a lot of syns, especially if they are creamy as opposed to vinegar dressings. It’s simple to remember, when tossing your salad, get to the vinegar strokes and stop right there. We used Hellman’s balsamic dressing at 0.5 syns per level tablespoon.
J
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September 21, 2014

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classics, low syn, lunch, recipe card, rice, savoury snacks, taster ideas, vegetarian

slimming world curry loaf

well – here’s the first recipe, a recipe for a curry loaf which rocks in at 2 syns for the lot, but serves 4. Or two fat sods, like us. Hope you like the recipe card idea, seems a bit better than reading another boring recipe. So..

to make slimming world curry loaf:

Guaranteed to make you fart AND lose weight

extra-easy: no syns to be found (sweet potato wedges are done in the actifry with a bit of frylight), and meet your superfree target by bulking out the curry loaf with two giant leeks instead of onion and adding tomatoes and peppers if you like them, all of which are superfree foods!

warning: make sure the chickpea dahl you select is syn-free – usually ASDA’s own brand and this natty number from Morrisons fit the bill, but a quick google search will tell you. Also, you can switch the rice out for some of those Batchelors rices, but again, check the syns – the Ainsley Harriott rice above is 1 and a 1/2 syns. The extra half syn comes from the tiny bit of olive oil I used to grease my loaf tin. And that’s not a euphemism.

top tips: you can turn the heating down in your home after this meal, as you’ll be farting like a brewery horse and the smell of said flatus will be so ripe it’ll put you off snacking, or indeed breathing, for several hours. A big loaf like this means you can take some for lunch the day after, and combined with a healthy green salad means an ultra-low syn option!

J